When I needed you most
by Reluctantly
Summary: Pain, Drama, Love, Laughter, and Hate all bottled up into one story. Long lost emotions come back as well as new emotions fall upon the Konoha and Suna characters. Join them in their modern life living as they take on the hardships of life and what adventures lie ahead for them. Rated M for language. Pairings? Read to find out! [ Revising, which means... more chapters as well. ]


**Chapter 1: Walking home**

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A rush of cold, winter air hit Sakura's face as she stepped out of the hospital. She merely responded to the sudden winter weather with a slight shiver and readjusted the faint pink scarf that covered her neck. The cold air gave Sakura relief as she walked down the sidewalk and towards the street aligned with small shops. Today had been a long day at the hospital, with everyone coming in for their flu shots and new patients getting sick over the sudden cold weather. Winter was now upon the people in Konoha. According to reporters, it's going to be one of the coldest Winters Konoha has had in a while.

Sakura's strides came to a halt as she realized what's going on tonight, he's coming back tonight after he's been gone for two years. Naruto's coming back to Konoha and to stay, like he promised. The eager pink haired girl looked down at her phone to check the time, 5:10 p.m.

If she was lucky her favorite shop was open, she wanted to pick up a welcome home gift for Naruto so she could just spend time setting up for his welcome home party tomorrow evening. A welcoming smell of vanilla and honey filled the air of the small shop as Sakura entered, feeling even more welcomed as the elderly woman behind the check-out counter greeted her.

"Good evening, Miss Haruno." She smiled softly.

"Good evening!" Sakura greeted back before walking towards the aisles, before she turned down one of them she stop to think about what Naruto would like, _hmm it's been quite a while since I've last seen my blonde haired friend, what if he doesn't like the gift?_ The pale girl pondered to herself before deciding to look down the aisles, maybe something would stick out to her as a gift for Naruto.

Her eyes widened in interest as she stopped to pick up the bowl center pieces people normally place on their coffee tables. This particular center piece was a small bowl that had an orange nine-tailed fox design to it, the fox looked mischievous. To Sakura, this looked like an item that Naruto would put in his house, so she decided to buy it. Grinning to herself, Sakura concluded that when she got home she'd paint his favorite catch phrase somewhere along the bowl. _Believe it._

Sakura smiled to herself as she pulled out her phone to look at the time once again, 6:00 p.m. What? Had she really been looking around in the shop for a gift that long? Oh well, usually she went out with Ino and the girls in the evenings, but tonight she could just go home and relax for the exciting events that tomorrow will have to offer.

Sakura's ears perked up as she started to hear two pairs of soft footsteps about 8 feet behind her. _Well, I'm sure they're not following me._ Sakura concluded to herself as she continued walking, to make matters worse the shortcut she usually took to get home was darker looking than usual, only two of the streetlamps were on. Picking up her pace, she quickly turned down the alleyway and hoped the footsteps didn't follow. But to her dismay, the footsteps also picked up the pace and turned down the same alleyway. She could hear one of them laughing.

"Hey, where do you think you're going, cupcake?" one of the males teased her as their voices sounded closer than she thought they were.

"Yeah, we only want to talk." The other one chimed in, as he laughed rather loudly.

_Oh no, how did I end up in this mess? Ino told me that one of these days some creeps would follow me home. Why is she usually right?!_ Sakura began to freak out as a lump began to form in her throat, her feet only picking up in pace as she now began to run.

"Slow down sweet cheeks! We only want to play with you." One of them called out as she could hear their shoes smack against the concrete.

"Go away!" Sakura called back, thinking she could outrun them. She didn't notice the one unaligned concrete block that was sticking out on the sidewalk, as the front of her boot got caught on it she fell forward onto the ground and dropped the gift for Naruto.

"Aww, see what happens when you run? You got hurt." One of them cooed as they hovered over her. Sakura noticed that the smaller one was holding a pocket knife, the light from the streetlamp reflected off the blade giving it away.

"What do you want from me?" Sakura tried to remain calm and somewhat collected, thinking over scenarios in her head of how she could get away from the two creeps. She certainly did not want to show any sign of weakness, or she'd know that she lost. Whatever happens she will not go down without a fight.

The older, taller male grinned mischievous "what do we want from you?" he leaned down and cupped her chin with one of his hands. "Sweetheart, we want _you._" Sakura could smell the heavy intoxicating odor of the liquor the male must have had in one of the bars, this situation could be more grave than she thought. The males were drunk, which left them unpredictable as well. Trying to lean as far away from them as possible, she looked down and eyed her phone in her pocket. She could try to pull out her phone and dial for help, but she was pretty sure the one with the knife would get to her before she could attempt that.

"Bill, it's getting really cold outside, why don't we take her back to our place and _warm_ her up." The dark haired guy with the knife suggested sexually as he used the knife to push a strand of Sakura's hair behind her.

"That's a good idea. Tonight, we can play doctor and you can be our patient." The older one growled out as he grabbed Sakura by the collar of her coat underneath the scarf and lifted her off the ground as he stood up; keeping her level with his face. Sakura soon couldn't breathe much so her breaths were coming out short and irregular. As a last resort she kicked her legs forward trying to kick the guy in a weak spot she knew would have him fall to his knees. To no avail, she couldn't kick high enough, this caused the smaller male to laugh.

"Aww, she's a little feisty one too." He cooed once more, holding up the knife to her arm and grazed it along the sleeve of her coat.

"Please, just let me go. I have nothing to offer either of you." Sakura began to plead as she continued to try to kick the male furiously. _What I'd give to have some help right now. _Tears started to sting along the bottom of her fearful emerald eyes as she stared into the face of the drunken male choking her.

Almost as if answering her silent calls of help, a tall and masculine figure now stood behind the drunken predators. The smaller one didn't realize the figure was there until the bright haired male smacked the knife out of his hand.

"Hey, who do you think you are?! We saw her first!" The small male rubbed his hand and snarled at him.

"It's rude to harass women." the red haired male replied coldly, his voice was dripping with venom.

"Bill, looks like we have some trouble." The smaller male laughed, looking up at Bill.

"Oh boy, just when I thought we were going to get our way too. Whatever; nothing we can't handle." Bill chimed in, as he threw Sakura forward. The pink haired girl's back came into contact with the streetlamp they were standing under as her head hit the ground before the rest of her body could. She felt very weak and close to fainting as she pushed herself up as much as she could and tried to get a glimpse at the male who came to her aid. She could feel a warm stream of liquid flow down her face and drip onto the ground. Unfortunately for her, her vision was blurred from hitting the ground too hard and before she knew it everything grew darker and she fainted.

What felt like hours later, she could hear a voice; it was the same voice from the man who came to her aid; he sounded so far away, yet she could feel herself being pulled up and carried into someone's arms. She couldn't move or open her eyes, all she could do was faintly hear what was being said around her and feel the slight blurs of ice touch her skin. Sakura also sensed a pair of cold eyes looking down at her with concern as he spoke once more, "Sakura, can you hear me?" the voice was soft and… kind.

_I need to try to open my eyes…_ Sakura commanded herself to do so. She felt herself being laid back down onto something cushiony, was it a seat? The question she had was confirmed as she heard a door slam along with a slight rush of air sound behind her. She was now in a car. The sore girl could just barely manage to open her eyes and faintly make out a blob that was in the driver's seat as she turned her head up towards the front of the vehicle. A mess of short bright red hair caught the most attention in her blurred vision, along with the red mark on the blob's forehead when it turned around to look at her.

"I'll take you to a hospital." The voice coldly replied, as he started the engine and took off down the road. Sakura's vision faded again and before long she lost consciousness.

* * *

**_Earlier_**

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"Gaara, you know how we feel about you just randomly leaving us to do your work!" Temari's voice rang out from the small speakers along the dashboard of the redhead's car. Temari was utterly pissed.

"I'm sorry, I did tell you and Kankuro that I would be leaving sometime today to go see Naruto. He hasn't been around here in two years." Gaara snapped back, quickly darting his attention towards a sign he was now passing that read: "Welcome to Konoha" with a slight nod, he reverted his gaze to the road as the large buildings and small shops came into view. It was starting to get dark outside.

Gaara raised an eyebrow as he heard the blonde sigh into the phone, which echoed through the car. He knew he won this argument, he knew he won the argument the moment he stepped foot out of the building and got in his car.

"Whatever. Just be careful, okay? And please make it a short visit, don't forget that you have a meeting with Shikaku Nara Monday morning, and you know how short tempered that man can be if anyone's late to the meeting." Temari informed him, he could tell by her tone that the slender woman was rolling her eyes and placing her hand on her hip on the other side of the phone.

"I know. I will be back in Suna Monday morning." Gaara replied shortly before hitting the end button along the dashboard that ended their call. That was one feature he loved about this car, he knew he usually received a lot of business calls and instead of answering his phone and risk hitting someone on the road, he just plugged his phone into the stereo and he was good to go. However, he hated how annoying it was being called all the time. Although he's gotten better with socializing with people (thanks to Naruto) he still hated talking to people. People just… lack for a better word, annoyed him.

Which is what Temari was doing, annoying him. With this thought the tan redhead rolled his eyes. He was soon surrounded by tall buildings as well as small familiar shops, he couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips as he remembered the first time he visited Konoha with Kankuro and Temari. The first time he met Naruto Uzumaki.

_I guess I'll just have to wait it out… _it was going to take another 3 hours for his blonde friend to get to Konoha since the flight was delayed. The redhead sighed to himself as he drove down the roads. He began to slow down as he started looking at the different shops, wondering if he should walk into one and just look around. One of the small shops caught his eye, apparently it was an antique store. I could look around in there, maybe buy something. Anything to pass the time. Before he decided to pull over a flash of pink caught the corner of the young man's pale blue-green eyes, his gaze followed what caught his eye and sure enough there was the pink haired friend of Naruto's and from what he could assume she was walking home.

"What kind of idiot walks home alone this late at night? She's just asking for some creeps to follow her." Gaara narrowed his eyes questionably and watched her pocket her phone. Sure enough a few moments later, two males began to walk closely behind her. Gaara usually was close to never being surprised if it turns out he was right about something, but this made Gaara's eyes widen as he watched the smaller male pull out a pocket knife. _Damn it, why'd I have to be right?_ He mentally scowled himself. On this thought, Gaara quickly pulled over to the side of the road as he saw the slender female turn down an alleyway, followed by the lurking men.

Once Gaara crossed the road and turned down the alleyway to approach the men following Naruto's friend, his eyes narrowed once more and he growled lowly to himself as he watched the scene unfold in front of him from a distance he could hear Sakura's soft voice, "Please, just let me go. I have nothing to offer either of you."

Quickly Gaara walked up behind the two men as his shoes caused the snow below his feet to crunch and the smell of liquor filled his nose as he got closer, the men were drunk. This caused Gaara to scrunch his nose and the frown on his face further deepened. The look on the redhead's face was nearly demonic as he continued to interrupt the two males, one of which was choking the struggling girl.

He looked down at the smaller one with the knife who failed to realize Gaara was right behind him. Gaara then proceeded to swiftly smack the knife out of his hand to capture their attention away from the choking girl and from the blank expression on her face he could tell that she was half unconscious already.

"Hey, who do you think you are?! We saw her first!" The small male rubbed his hand and snarled at Gaara. _Time to put some creeps in their place._

"It's rude to harass women." Gaara replied darkly, staring the men down.

"Bill, looks like we have some trouble." The smaller male laughed, looking up the taller male who was still holding the barely struggling girl, Sakura's kicks began to slow down and all together stop. She was not even looking at anyone in particular, Gaara wasn't even sure if she knew he was there.

"Oh boy, just when I thought we were going to get our way too. Whatever; nothing we can't handle." The tall man declared, as Gaara watched him throw Sakura forward. Her back hit the streetlamp they were standing under before landing head first against the cold concrete; the sickening sound of her skull hitting the ground made Gaara twitch and snap his gaze away. His eyes held a now demonic look to them as he looked down at the still girl. A cut on her forehead started to ooze blood and slowly flow down her pale face to the ground she was lying on.

_Blood._

This was enough to set Gaara over the edge. Rushing forward, Gaara used his elbow to hit the taller male in the stomach before following up with an upper cut to his jaw; which sent the man up and he fell back onto the concrete. To Gaara's smirked darkly as he heard one of the bones snap, much to the redhead's entertainment. _He must have landed wrist first. _Looking over at him the man howled in pain as it was obvious that his hand was now broken. Gaara kept the smirk plastered along his lips as he started to walk towards the howling man. The smaller one thought that Gaara had forgotten about him. He soon charged at Gaara when he turned his back only to see Gaara quickly lower to the ground and dropkick the dark haired one to the ground. Once the male was on the ground like the other, he walked up to the smaller male and stepped on his outreached arm.

"No! Don't! We're sorry!" the smaller one yelped out in pain, trying to move his arm before Gaara could break it. But with no luck, his arm remained trap under Gaara's foot. The smaller male looked desperately over at his taller bulky friend who seemed to be in a sort of daze lying on the ground crying in pain over his hand.

Gaara's mischievous smirk grew in size on his face as he applied more weight on his foot that was holding the man's arm down, then quickly he twisted it around, hearing the snap of the man's arm followed by a loud and painful cry. Regaining his upright composure, Gaara merely kicked the smaller male in the face to send him falling back to the ground; knocking him out cold. His darkened glare turned towards the howling man not too far away.

"Time to finish what was started." Gaara stated, before sending a final blow to the man's face like he did the other one. He could practically feel the taller man's nose break under his foot; sending out a hysterical scream of pain followed by many curse words. Shrugging, Gaara felt that they got what they deserved and turned back towards the bleeding female under the streetlamp.

_Time to get her to the emergency room, and quickly._ Picking Sakura up into his arms, he watched the blood continue to coat her face and noticed the pain stricken look that she now had. He wondered if she could hear him at all, so he tried to wake her. "Sakura, can you hear me?"

No response. Making his way quickly to his car, he opened up the back door and placed her in the seat before shutting the door and getting in the driver's side. Before he started the engine he thought he heard a mumble of some sort come from the bleeding girl in the backseat, turning himself around he noticed she was facing him, but still not sure if she was conscious.

"I'll take you to a hospital." Gaara replied lowly before turning the engine on and speeding down the street. If she wasn't being so stupid she wouldn't be in this mess. Didn't she have any friends that could walk home with her? If Gaara was anything like his former self, he probably would have left her there to bleed out. But, he wasn't that kind of person anymore.

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**((** Already the story starts with some drama. If you haven't noticed, Sakura and Gaara are my favorite characters, so I decided to start the story with those two. Haha. And I know what you're thinking.. Bill? Such a generic name aside from the Naruto character names. But I didn't want to go into detail with the pervs names, as they were only a small part of this soon to be multi-chaptered story. I do hope you enjoy reading it and you can look forward to many updates! **))**


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